Mandolin U. Srinivas – A Child Prodigy who rewrote the Indian Classical Music

Hailed as the ‘Mozart of Classical Carnatic Music Tradition, Mandolin Srinivas was a child prodigy. Learning the skills from his father, his brilliance was emerged early 80s when he was just 13-years old. Soon, the self-made genius created ripples across India and abroad with his own invention, a 5-stringed Mandolin.

At a very young age he was internationally viewed as the successor to Pandit Ravi Shankar. When Srinivas gave his first performance it led to him being compared to the world's greatest prodigies: "Some of you have heard or read about exceptionally gifted children, our own Mandolin Srinivas, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Beethoven, Sir Isaac Newton, Picasso, Madam Curie, the list is endless. (The Hindu, Sunday, May 3, 1992).

U. Srinivas would play them on the mandolin, thus developing a phenomenal style of playing entirely his own, and astonishingly, on an instrument that had never been played in the rigorous and difficult Carnatic style before. Soon, the family shifted to Chennai, the mecca of Carnatic music, where most Carnatic musicians live.

He made his debut public Carnatic concert performance in 1978 during theThyagaraja Aradhana festival at Gudivada in Andhra Pradesh. Thereafter, at age eleven, in 1981, he gave his first public concert in Chennai at the Indian Fine Arts Society during the December Music Season, and never looked back.

He was the first musician to use the electric mandolin in Carnatic music: he modified the electric western instrument, using five single strings instead of the traditional four doubled strings to suit the Carnatic pitch, raga system, and especially gamakas, or nuanced oscillations. After initial reluctance, he found wide acceptance and critical acclaim in the following decades.

He played at the Berlin Jazz Festival in 1983 and at the Olympic Arts Festival, Barcelona in 1992. In 1995, he recorded a successful fusion album with Michael Brook. Srinivas stormed the world music scene at age thirteen at the Berlin Jazz Festival. Initially booked to play a half-hour concert after Miles Davis, Srinivas so enthralled the audience in Berlin that he won a standing ovation, and had to play for another hour.

It took John Mclaughlin 14 years to get Srinivas to play with him. When he revived his group Shakti, and renamed it Remember Shakti, in 1997, he asked Srinivas to join the group and tour the world with it, along with other celebrated Indian musicians Zakir Hussain, Shankar Mahadevan, and V. Selvaganesh. Srinivas, of course, was the undisputed superstar of the group. Srinivas toured extensively across the world, in his own right, as a prodigy and leading star from the classical Indian music firmament, receiving thunderous applause and appreciation wherever he performed.

Over the years, Srinivas recorded over 137 albums, in diverse genres from Carnatic music solos to jugalbandis with Hindustani musicians, and world music.[12] He performed with Western artists such as John McLaughlin, Michael Brook, Trey Gunn, Nigel Kennedy, Nana Vasconcelos, and Michael Nyman, as well as with Hindustani music artists such as Hariprasad Chaurasia and Zakir Hussain, besides Carnatic artists like Vikku Vinayakram and V. Selvaganesh. U. Srinivas started a music school called the Srinivas Institute of World Music (SIOWM) in Chennai.

Though died at very young age of 45, Srinivas, in his 3-decade long career, got numerous awards and rewards like Padmasri from Government of India and Sangeet Natak Academy Award and Mysore T.Chowdiah Memorial National Award.

Remembering the great legend, Surtarang has planned a series of wonderful music broadcasts. So, get ready to immerse in the ocean of music rendered by eminent musicians through Surtarang…